


Societal Binaries, Am I Right?

by timetobegin



Category: Kaleidotrope (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Non-Binary Character, F/M, Fluff, M/M, basically all my gender feels about harrison in a single story, drew is a great boyfriend, gender feels, not quite enough for M rating but if that's not your thing you can avoid, sex mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 18:50:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17772299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetobegin/pseuds/timetobegin
Summary: The day after the Sock Hop, Drew and Harrison wake up together, and Drew asks Harrison some questions.





	Societal Binaries, Am I Right?

Drew’s arm was completely numb, which probably had something to do with the fact that Harrison had used it as a pillow all night.

 

The sun was shining straight into his eyes, because he’d forgotten to close the blinds the night before. (He’d been… otherwise occupied.) He couldn’t even bring himself to be annoyed that he was woken up so early on a Saturday.

 

There was a strange sort of elation in his chest to be waking up in nothing but his underwear next to a naked Harrison. He did his best not to fidget and not to focus too much on the naked aspect of the equation. It would be stupid to get himself worked up before Harrison was even conscious.

 

Instead, he let himself be dopey eyed and romantic and think about the day before. For all that he pretended to be a cynic—not that anyone would believe he was, anymore—Drew loved being cheesy. It’s just, when he didn’t have anyone to be cheesy _with_ , or when said someone treated him like a dick, it took the joy out of it. But Drew had a feeling Harrison wouldn’t mind and wouldn’t make fun of him.

 

Well, not too much.

 

So Drew could let himself dwell on finding Harrison right in time for Harrison to fall dramatically into his arms, their ridiculous flirting and banter for their audience, and their teamwork. Had last night not gone as well, Drew might be thinking these same thoughts alone in bed, just to torture himself. But it hadn’t, and he wasn’t, so there was no point worrying.

 

Probably.

 

He was saved from that train of thought by Harrison slowly waking up, which was incredibly adorable and distracting. Harrison stretched a little and arched his back like a cat, trying to shove his face further into Drew’s arm before finally opening his eyes. He blinked a few times before they focused on Drew, and he smiled softly. “Hey, handsome.”

 

“Hey, beautiful.” Drew’s reply was automatic, but Harrison brightened in a way that reminded Drew of something he’d been meaning to ask for a while now. Well, two somethings.

 

Two somethings he almost completely forgot about, along with the pins and needles in his arm and his own name when Harrison twined his arms around Drew’s neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

 

Drew was honestly a little out of breath and more than a little speechless when Harrison let him go, grinning.

 

“So, this is pretty great, huh?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“We should do it more often.”

 

“What, sex? Or waking up together?”

 

“Hm, both. Both is good.” Harrison kissed him again.

 

O _kay_ , Drew really needed to press pause on this train, or something.

 

“Wait,” he said hurriedly, and Harrison immediately stopped, looking worried.

 

“What’s wrong? Are you okay? You don’t have to bottom again if you’re still sore, I--”

 

“ _Harrison_ ,” Drew cut him off, blushing even though no one could hear. “I’m fine. That’s not it. I just wanted to ask you something.”

 

“That’s not the thing you say to get me not to worry.”

 

Blushing even harder, Drew said, “No, I just—sorry. I was going to ask you if you wanted… I mean, I know it’s really early, but the way we were talking about it last night kind of made it sound like you maybe wanted to be my boyfriend?”

 

Harrison chuckled. “Wow, needy much? You have sex with someone one time…”

 

Drew knew he was probably joking, but he couldn’t help a flash of disappointment in his chest. It must have shown on his face, because Harrison’s expression softened into an apology.

 

“God, I’m so sorry, I thought it would be funny, but that absolutely wasn’t. Ignore me and my stupid mouth. Of course I want to be your boyfriend. I was flirting with you for weeks before you even noticed. I was basically obsessed with you ever since I heard your sexy voice on the radio and desperately hoped you were into guys.”

 

“Are you, though?”

 

“Am I what?”

 

“A guy.”

 

Harrison looked genuinely flabbergasted. It was a word Drew generally avoided, since he’d never seen anyone look that confused in real life, until now. He didn’t think it was possible for someone as cute as Harrison lying in bed to be flabbergasted, but here he was.

 

Honestly, it made him even cuter.

 

“What?” Harrison asked, sounding a little breathless.

 

“I mean, I assumed Hal asked you your pronouns when she met you at that open mic night, and she always referred to you as he, even though you kind of said in our first episode that you’re only mostly a boy? I don’t know, you never seemed bothered by being called a guy, but I’ve been meaning to ask, and… I guess now seemed like a good time.”

 

Harrison was silent for a second, then he sat up with his back against the headboard, pulling his knees to his chest. “You remember that?”

 

Drew also pulled himself up, leaning against the cinderblock wall. Still close, but giving Harrison space if he needed. “Of course I do. I was also pretty obsessed with you.”

 

Harrison smiled a little. “I guess, just… no one’s ever really asked me that?”

 

“Well, I’d be a pretty shitty boyfriend if I didn’t, don’t you think?” Drew tried to keep his focus on the situation, but he got an incredibly thrill using the word boyfriend in the context of Harrison. “And we can use something more gender neutral if you want. Partner. Date mate is kind of cutesy for me, but I’d be down. SO. There’s a whole world of gender neutral possibilities.”

 

Harrison was quiet for a few more moments, but Drew could tell he was gearing up to say something. Which was odd, because words seemed to come so easily to Harrison a lot of the time.

 

“It doesn’t bother me that people see me as a boy.” When Drew raised an eyebrow, he insisted, “It doesn’t. That’s why I never really correct anyone. Mostly, I’m a boy. Most days. It’s like…” He trailed off, staring out the window for a few seconds.

 

Drew waited.

 

“It’s like, okay, there was this one time when I was out walking when I was in high school, kind of before I was done with puberty yet, so I still kind of looked like a kid. My mom always let me wear whatever I wanted, and I guess that day I was dressed kind of feminine, because I already hated the societal binary. I was kind of doing my own thing, daydreaming and walking around, and to catch my attention, someone called me miss, because my keys had fallen out of my bag, because I was swinging it around.”

 

Drew couldn’t help but smile. This was quite possibly the most Harrison story he’d ever heard.

 

“And I got this super excited feeling in my stomach, which I didn’t realize right away was because this dad guy called me miss. When he saw my face, he realized I was a boy and said sorry and looked all flustered. I didn’t know there was a word for it until years later.”

 

“Gender euphoria,” Drew supplied.

 

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t have dysphoria. But I do wish people would see me as a girl sometimes, if that makes sense, because sometimes that’s how I feel. Not both, and not neither. Usually just one or the other.” Harrison took a deep breath, then finally looked at Drew.

 

Drew could tell this was a huge deal for Harrison. It seemed like this wasn’t something Harrison had told anyone. His brain was shouting at him to make a matching huge deal out of it, but his gut was telling him to do what he wished his parents and his friends in school had done for him when he’d come out.

 

“Okay.”

 

Harrison looked confused again. “Okay?”

 

Drew grinned. “Okay. I mean, thank you for telling me, and I guess the only follow up question I have is do you want me to try it out? Referring to you as a girl, I mean?”

 

“You’re really cool with this? I thought you were gay.”

 

“First of all, I think we’ve established by now that I’m Harrison-sexual, so I don’t think you should worry about what my labels are. Second of all, I only say I’m gay because I’m _mostly_ attracted to guys, and I’ve only ever dated guys in the past. It’s simpler than pan or bi or whatever.” He rolled his eyes dramatically and said, “Societal binaries, am I right?”

 

Harrison elbowed him, but he looked pretty pleased. “Then I mean, if you don’t mind…”

 

“Babe, I want you to be happy, and you deserve to be recognized. My girlfriend deserves to have her gender validated by at least one person.”

 

Harrison smiled a little wider at that. Which just egged Drew on more.

 

“Does my girlfriend want me to refer to her as such when we’re around other people?”

 

She looked a little uncomfortable at that. “No. Not right now.”

 

“Sounds good. C’mere.” He lifted his arm, and Harrison scooted over and tucked herself beneath it.

 

“I lied.”

 

“What?” Harrison said, sounding slightly alarmed.

 

“I have more follow up questions.”

 

“Don’t scare me like that.”

 

“Sorry. Okay, you said there’s specific days where you feel more like a girl? Do you want me to ask you in the morning, or do you want to have some kind of signal, or something? Or should I just pick random days and surprise you?”

 

“I, um, wow.” Harrison said. “I guess I haven’t thought about it?”

 

“Okay, then now is probably not the time to ask if you want me to call you a different name on days like that.”

 

“Oh, boy. Yeah. Give me some time.”

 

“We’ve got a lot of that.”

 

Harrison wrapped her arms around Drew’s middle, and Drew could feel it as the thank you it was. He would probably have been content to leave it at that, but he wanted to make Harrison smile again.

 

“Hey, guess what?”

 

“What?” Harrison’s voice was slightly muffled from being pressed against his chest.

 

“My girlfriend is really wonderful.”

 

“Drew _._ ”

 

“She is. She’s got this adorable fluffy hair that’s a different color nearly every time I see her. She makes me laugh like no other person can. She listened to _Rent_ for me, which is basically a marriage proposal in my book--”

 

“ _Drew_. You don’t have to do this.”

 

“What?”

 

“Pretend I’m a girl just to make me feel better.”

 

That made Drew mad. Not at Harrison, but at the world for telling her she shouldn’t be who she was. “I’m not pretending. If you tell me sometimes you feel like a girl, then you’re a girl sometimes. End of story. And I’m going to respect that and validate the shit out of that, because it sounds like nobody else has bothered, and you don’t deserve that.” He took Harrison’s face in his hands, making her look up at him. “You deserve the world, all right?”

 

Harrison just kissed him again, but this time instead of being a foreplay kind of kiss, it was sweet and slow. When Harrison pulled away, she looked like she was maybe about to cry, but she smiled brightly and said instead, “Tell me more about your girlfriend.”

 

Drew knew they’d need to talk about this more one day, but they’d made far enough for now. “Well, she’s been distracting me at the radio for weeks now, and I don’t think the fact that I’ve seen her naked is going to help with that anytime soon. Because did I mention? She’s really, really sexy.”

 

“That’s a memo I think she got last night,” Harrison replied, finally grinning without a trace of sadness this time.

 

“Good, because I think if she’s down, I might keep her here all weekend.”

 

“She’s definitely down,” Harrison replied, pulling him in for a kiss that was _definitely_ foreplay.

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is! My first fic in this fandom! Is it fluffy? YES! Is it full of queer? YES! Am I shouting from the rooftops for everyone to remember that Harrison is nonbinary? YES!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Thanks to Balthazar for FINALLY listening to the show so they could beta my fic, and for providing fun, if not super helpful, commentary after reading this.


End file.
